caa a22 4500 445383615 CHVBK 20180317143025.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10021-011-9459-1 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10021-011-9459-1 Growing Season Length and Soil Moisture Interactively Constrain High Elevation Aboveground Net Primary Production [Elektronische Daten] [Aaron Berdanier, Julia Klein] Although high elevation meadows are often considered to be primarily temperature-limited, aboveground net primary production (ANPP) is influenced by both growing season length (GSL) and soil moisture (SM). Progress in understanding these responses comes from studies at individual sites that are often focused on single abiotic drivers, so little is known about how climatic constraints relate to one another and limit ANPP at larger scales. We examined the independent and combined effects of these two key climate drivers (GSL and SM) across a suite of high elevation meadows from two continents. We also sampled gradients of each variable at a single site to explore mechanisms for SM and GSL limitations. Here, we show that high elevation meadows are limited by both GSL and SM levels. GSL constrained maximum ANPP by approximately 4gm−2d−1 whereas average daily ANPP beneath this constraint was significantly influenced by SM. Carbon isotope and plant/soil nitrogen data suggest that SM influenced ANPP through its impact on nitrogen availability. Increases in GSL can increase ANPP unless those increases are accompanied by SM decreases. These interactive effects can produce distinct ecological patterns and must be considered when predicting high elevation meadow responses to future climate changes. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 high-elevation nationallicence production nationallicence growing season length nationallicence soil moisture nationallicence alpine nationallicence subalpine nationallicence Berdanier Aaron Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 80523, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA aut Klein Julia Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 80523, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA aut Ecosystems Springer-Verlag 14/6(2011-09-01), 963-974 1432-9840 14:6<963 2011 14 10021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9459-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9459-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Berdanier Aaron Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 80523, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Klein Julia Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, 80523, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ecosystems Springer-Verlag 14/6(2011-09-01), 963-974 1432-9840 14:6<963 2011 14 10021 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer